Various forms of liquid medical wastes are commonly produced in surgery and other medical procedures. Such wastes may include blood and other body fluids of patients. The wastes may also include solid particles such as fragments of bone or cartilage. Some procedures produce a high volume of such waste from a single patient. For example, saline solution is used to irrigate the knee area during arthroscopic procedures. As another example, saline solution is used to flush the bladder, urethra and/or prostate in some urology procedures. Such procedures may produce as much as 30,000 cc of liquid medical waste.
Liquid medical waste generates significant disposal problems due to its possible contamination with various infectious diseases, including AIDS, hepatitis and MRSA. As a result, rules and regulations for the handling and disposal of liquid medical waste have been imposed by various governmental and regulatory agencies. For example, new regulations require the use of engineering controls to protect employees from exposure. In addition, hospitals and other health care facilities have been searching for methods and systems that reduce hospital personnel's exposure to the fluids during collection, handling and disposal. Procedures that produce large volumes of liquid medical waste amplify these issues and concerns.
Various systems and methods have been used for collecting, handling and disposing of fluids from procedures that produce large volumes of liquid medical waste. The collection vessels vary from simple buckets to automated, electronically controlled processing equipment.
Systems comprising a vacuum source and suction canisters are commonly used to aspirate fluids from patients during surgical procedures. Such suction canisters can range in volume from around 1200 cc to around 3000 cc. A suction canister can feature a removable lid or manifold with a vacuum port and a patient or suction port. During a surgical procedure, the vacuum port is connected by flexible tubing to a hospital vacuum source while the suction port is connected by a second flexible tube to the region of the patient from which the fluid wastes are collected. The removable manifold can have a filter associated with the vacuum port that can increase the safety of systems employing suction canisters by shutting off a canister's vacuum supply when wet and preventing contamination of the vacuum supply system. Conversely, such filters also limit flow performance of the manifold.